Playboi Carti’s newest album, “MUSIC,” was released on March 14, five years since the rapper divided the hip-hop world with his genre-defining album “Whole Lotta Red.” After all this time,  Carti hasn’t missed a step, delivering a quality album that stands neck in neck with the rest of his discography. 

While not as genre-bending as his previous work,s “MUSIC” does the inverse of what Carti tried to do in 2020. He integrates southern hip-hop mixtape tropes into a fairly new sub-genre rather than trying to create something completely new and does it flawlessly.

The most notable part of Carti’s music is his vocals and that’s no different on this album. After going through many different phases of sound in his career, this album features a lower-pitched voice that he previewed on some of the singles leading up to this album’s release like “ALL RED.” This vocal style is very reminiscent of another hip-hop behemoth, Future. 

Tracks like “TOXIC” with Skepta emphasize just how eerily similar the two sound to one another. Throughout the album, Carti doesn’t just stick to one voice; he showcases a wide range of voices throughout the album. When listening, it’s hard to decipher if there’s a feature or just Carti. 

His lyricism isn’t anything special, but that’s not his appeal; rather the production of his vocals as instruments enhances the production. 

There are some great entertaining one-liners on the album that will catch your attention. Most notably on “EVIL J0RDAN,” “They can’t put me in no genre, baby, cause I changed the game.”

The list of features consists of a cast of all-stars with huge names such as Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, The Weeknd, Jhene Aiko, Skepta, Future and more. 

The best features come from Kendrick Lamar and Jhene Aiko’s performances on “BACKD00R,” The Weeknd on “RATHER LIE,” Travis Scott on “PHILLY” and Young Thug and Ty Dolla $ign on “WE NEED ALL DA VIBES.” The most notable of the features is undoubtedly Lamar’s feature on “GOOD CREDIT.”

In terms of mixing and mastering, the album is underwhelming. Some tracks are louder than others, not because there’s a dynamic range between each one, but simply because some tracks were compressed a lot more than others. 

The pumping and volume changes on “LIKE WEEZY” are just bad. On tracks like “TWIN TRIM” there are loud unprocessed snare rolls in songs that some listeners might not like. Tracks such as “WE NEED ALL DA VIBES” also stand out with these issues seeing as Young Thug’s vocals are noticeably louder than Carti’s.

At some points, the production is extraordinary. The sample flips on tracks like “COCAINE NOSE” which takes R&B artist Ashanti’s song “Only U” and turns it into a dark and moody rage beat that will make you appreciate Carti’s music like never before. The sample flip on “CRANK” is also immensely creative taking renowned underground legend SpaceGhostPurrp’s song “f*** tvylxr gang” and turning it into an energetic and adrenaline-filled masterpiece. 

For how long this album is you’d expect it to be bloated or a pain to get through, but this is not the case. Most of these tracks have at least something interesting going for them that will keep audiences coming back for more. 

Overall this is a project that had some phenomenal ideas that could’ve been made better with some more attention and detail from Carti. This also explains why the mixing and mastering on some of these songs was very inconsistent. 

The album sounds extremely rushed at times, making it disappointing for listeners. The mixing issues don’t make this album unlistenable in any way shape or form and “MUSIC” is one of the best albums so far of 2025.